My view of the second to last water ski show of the season Sunday evening. Between two Mercury XS 200 horsepower motors. Behind those motors is Shane Hughes bare foot skiing in for the first ski act of the show.
The 2021 Beaverland Mustski show ski season is winding down. College aged kids have mostly headed back to school leaving the younger kids and old veterans left to entertain the home crowd two more times before we hang up the skis and tow ropes until spring of 2022.
The 2021 theme; “Raiders of the Lost Park” has been mothballed. Only one announcer is needed, who will “call them as they see them” coming across the show course.
The Ballet Line prepares to dance in front of our theme backdrop on the main starting dock during the National Show Ski Association Division 1 Championships.
Skiers were not the only people missing tonight. We were also missing key boat personnel. Specifically, spotters. A spotter is the person in the boat responsible for keeping an eye on the skiers for safety reasons.
My normal job as comical side kick for the announcer was not needed, so I climbed into a boat to spot for Erich “The Hammer” Zellmer. Erich drives a Dyna Ski boat with twin 200 horsepower Mercury XS motors. Erich is the captain of the drive team and pulls most of the difficult acts. I got a great view of Sunday’s show peering between, around and over those motors.
Here’s a sampling of video that I got to shoot from the spotters seat Sunday evening.
R Dub donning his Coast Guard approved Personal Flotation Device as The Hammer begins to organize his thoughts for boat patterns and use of available boats and drivers for this late August, late afternoon show.
Ben Sether’s helicopter jump over a cutting Shane Hughes.
A great view of how prefabricated pyramids are pulled off the dock. No climbing necessary.
Shane Hughes barefoot skiing around the show course twice and a nice sliding landing in front of the crowd.
Rough water made this attempt, known as a bomb out, of jumping out of two perfectly good ski onto bare feet fall abruptly and violently short. I have video from the National Division 1 Championships for a future post that will show how good Shane is at this act under normal water conditions.
From the National Division 1 Tourney. Shane successfully bombing to begin the Flippin’ Bombcopter. Forgive the middle video footage the end is worth the distraction.
Last but certainly not least. A very rare view from a breaker boat of the final 4 tier pyramid being built. What’s a breaker boat? When the lake is extremely rough as it was Sunday evening, a breaker boat travels in front of the tow boat to smooth out rough water giving the skiers a better chance to safely build the pyramid. It worked like a charm tonight!
Conversational BLOG writer and contributing writer for LocaLeben magazine. My BLOG entries represent observations that intrigue, amuse, inspire or stimulate my appetite.
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